Maine Wood Heat Company ALBIECORE User manual

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OWNER MANUAL
ALBIECORE™ HEATER OPERATING AND
MAINTENANCE INSTRUCTIONS
The Maine Wood Heat Company has been
designing and building masonry heaters for
nearly 30 years. We have been an integral part
of the development of masonry heaters in the
United States from the beginning and are very
pleased to still be a part of this very significant
technology today. We welcome you into this
ever-growing family of heater owners. We
are grateful to have played a role in the new
heart of your home and we offer the following
information to help you become familiar with
your heater’s operation and care. Your new
heater should serve and warm you for many
years to come.
Warm Regards,
Albie, Cheryl, and Scott Barden
GETTING TO KNOW YOUR HEATER:
Your heater is equipped with one or two sets of
loading doors each of which have primary draft
slides. You also have an ash box door with a
draft slide and if you chose to have a bake oven,
you will have a bake oven door with a screw out
draft control.
In addition, your heater is equipped with a
sliding shut off damper with a wooden handle,
as well as a by-pass channel with a pivoting
weighted handle.
Finally, if your installation called for it, you may
have a cast iron pivoting ash dump located on
the floor of the ash box.
CLEANOUTS AND SOOT DOORS:
In the basement, your wood heater flue typically
has an 8” x 8” cast iron soot door at the base of
the chimney. It should be kept tightly closed
except when inspecting or cleaning the chimney.
You also have an 8” x 8” cleanout door mounted
on the second or third course of the heater’s
block foundation. Its purpose is to give you
access for annual or biannual ash removal from
the heater above.
If you have a second flue on the chimney it too is
equipped with an 8” x 8” cast iron clean out and
a 6”or 7” galvanized thimble to service a gas or
oil fired appliance.
CARE DURING CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSE:
It is very important to understand that your
heater should not be used by anyone but
yourselves. If anyone fills the heater with trash
or kindling or construction scraps, the firebox
could over heat and cause stress cracking.
While the house is being completed the bench
and heater cap should be covered with plywood
and workers should not be allowed to use the
bench as a ladder, storage area or workbench.
The same should apply to the cap area.

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Do not wrap the heater with plastic. This will
hold in moisture, not allow the heater to breath
and cure, and will cause the metal doors to rust.
BREAK IN BURN OR CURING FIRE:
A small fire is about a 10 lb. fire. When I do
“cures” with a new heater, I put in 5-10 lbs.
of dry kindling and start a fire. I keep the fire
going at about that size for a couple or more
hours until I feel some heat coming from various
parts of the heater. This is the curing process.
Others recommend two or three small curing
fires spaced a few hours apart. I prefer the small
continuous fire until warmth is felt. Then I wait
for another 8 to 12 hours to light the first full load
of 40-50 lbs. of dry split wood 3-4” in diameter.
The wood should be 3-5” away from the glass
and screen. In Finland, where the top down burn
does not come from, they typically lean their
wood vertically against one or both corners of the
back wall.
The firebox is self-cleaning. The glass doors will
start dirty then come relatively clean after a full
burn achieves its highest temperature. Some
build up of fly ash or creosote may occur on the
door. Putting a few fine ashes for the previous
fire on a moist paper towel and rubbing the glass
of the door using the ash as a fine abrasive easily
removes this. Using this technique, Cheryl’s
parents have kept their doors spotless for many
years. A full burn is likely to last 1-2.5 hours. A
very aggressive burn of 40-50 lbs. of wood can
be consumed in an hour, but much of that heat
is then lost up the chimney, since the brick can’t
absorb it as fast as it is being produced.
Fly ash building up in the channels can be
vacuumed out once or twice a year with a shop
vacuum inserted into the base of the channels
through the soot doors.
The bake oven can receive bread directly on the
floor tiles to the left and right of the center slot.
For 12” plus pizzas, add a pizza stone available
from gourmet kitchen supply houses and bake
on the stone. Be sure to remove the stone before
lighting the next fire.
The oven is “on” after each burn. Immediate use
of the oven may burn foods, until it cools down
a little. An infrared, hand held heat gun (about
$75) can be purchased from Science catalogs and
plumbing/heating supply houses. They have
a laser beam that is activated by a pistol grip
trigger. Point and shoot at any surface to get a
digital reading of the temperature.
Soft wood well dried is an acceptable fuel.
Most people in New England have hard wood
available, so prefer to use it because of its greater
density as compared to softwood. A moisture
content of 20% or less in the wood is preferred.
The heater will work best if you can cycle it once
or twice daily. If you fire it sporadically, it should
always be brought on line gradually to avoid
shocking the mass.
We hope this information is useful.

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STARTING A NORMAL FIRE:
“TOP DOWN BURN”
1) Make sure basement cleanout and thimble is
closed tight.
2) Open slide damper.
(Pull it out approximately 10-11”).
3) Open by-pass weighted handle. In the open
position the handle points towards the chimney.
In the closed position the handle is typically
vertical, in the same position as the damper
within the by pass channel.
4) Open the draft slides in both doors.
5) Leave draft slide in oven door closed.
(Occasionally, there may be a desire to use the
oven when the heater has not recently been
fired. The oven itself can be used as a firebox
and a small fire can be lit in it to bring it to
a baking temperature. In this case, the draft
control can be opened. In no case should the
oven be fired with the by pass damper left in the
open position as this can put flame directly into
the chimney flue tile.)
6) Open draft slide in ash box door.
7) Stack split, dry (approx. 16”- 18” long)
cordwood in log cabin fashion on base of
firebox.
8) Add three or four crumpled sheets of
newspaper.
9) Add several sticks of kindling on top of split,
dry cordwood.
10) On top of kindling add three or four more
sheets of crumpled newspaper.
11) Light the top layer of newspaper.
12) Close the large loading doors and stay with
the fire.
13) Once the fire is clearly established and
drafting well (5 minutes approx. on first start----
less once heater is on line during heating season)
you can shut the by-pass channel. If any smoke
enters the room, open the by-pass and wait
another 5 minutes. In no case should the by-
pass be left open for an extended period of time
during the burn (with the main doors closed).
A closed door and open by-pass extended burn
can over heat the by-pass and chimney flue at
the by-pass connection. For summer open fire
viewing, the by-pass can be left open as long as
the loading doors (with the spark screens closed)
are left open. The volume of room air entering
the firebox and by-pass will keep the system
sufficiently cool.
14) If smoking persists, recheck basement
openings and all soot doors on heater for an open
one. Positive chimney draft on a tight system
always is readily established in five minutes or
less in cool weather. Almost all smoke problems
are a result of a closed damper or an open soot
door.
15) Once a burn is well established and the by-
pass is closed, start to adjust the slide damper,
closing it by one third and also close the ash box
door draft slide.
An open ash box door draft slide or a slightly ajar

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ash box door will create a very strong draft and
flame, but this excessive air will actually cause
a less efficient burn than one with air coming in
primarily through the loading doors.
The fire has become well established and flames
are extending into the
bake oven/secondary burn chamber.
(Fireplace is drafting in down draft mode with
bake oven door open.)
Fully Established burn shows dramatic clean
combustion in both chambers.
(Gas combustion in the bake oven chamber swirls
left and right from the top center of the dome
down to the floor and back up again in a double
ram’s horn pattern before exiting in a narrow slot
parrallel to and just inside the oven door in the
dome.)
Bob Earnest has prepared and lit his
top down burn.
Fire burning down through from the top of the
firebox.

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16) Watch the flame. A clean burn is a happy
looking fire. It will be bright yellow or white
and even blue near the coals once the burn is
well underway. An unhappy fire (too cool, not
enough oxygen) is dark and angry looking.
Too much wood is trying to burn at once under
less than ideal conditions. With a top down burn
and as the throat and firebox heat up, the burn
will also clean up.
BURN TIME:
A full size load can be efficiently burned in 1
1/2 to 2 hours. The same load of wood can be
burned in less than an hour, but much of the heat
generated will be lost up the chimney.
FURTHER DAMPER ADJUSTMENT:
As the burn progresses, you may be able to close
the damper 2/3 in without seriously affecting the
fire. Slide the damper in until the fire begins to
visibly falter, then pull the damper out a bit and
leave it in this new position.
COALS:
As the fire burns down to coals, the volatile
gasses have largely been consumed. Open
the damper (and by-pass if necessary) and the
loading doors. Rake the coals with a poker
towards the grate. Close the doors, close the
by-pass and readjust the damper, then open
the ash box door draft slide to get a fairly rapid
consumption of the coals. When all the coals are
consumed, close the ash box door draft slide, the
main door draft slides and the shut off damper.
SAFETY SLOT:
The shut off damper is equipped with a 5% cut
out safety slot so that the warm chimney will
continue to create a vacuum suction on the
heater, thereby drawing off any carbon monoxide
gases left in the ash box.
ASH DUMP:
You need not dump ashes after every burn.
When the ashes are a couple inches deep, reach in
when the fire is out and pivot the ash dump plate
to the open position. Rake ashes into the opening
and then close the ash dump.
BURN CYCLES:
Small heaters in Finland were traditionally
burned once every eight to twelve hours and no
more than 3 times in each 24 hour period. Larger
heaters are often fired by commuters twice in
the evening over a 3-4 hour period and then not
again until the next evening without any stress
problems. If someone is home during the day, a
morning burn and an evening burn will give the
most even heat.
CRACKING:
While hairline cracks can occur in heaters, and
cause no safely hazard, larger stress cracks in
heaters are always the result of over firing.
Heaters must never be used on a continuous
fire basis, like a metal wood stove. After a few
hours the surface of the firebox firebrick will be
saturated with heat and unable to move heat
away from the fire as fast as the fire is delivering

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it. When this happens, the firebrick goes into
shock and will start to spall and/or crack.
Exterior brick and stone joints may develop
minor hairline cracks, which will open and close
as the heater cycles. Larger cracks only occur
when the heater is over fired. If your heater
develops serious cracks, stop using the heater
and call us or a local heater mason immediately
for an assessment visit and repair.
SURFACE TEMPERATURES:
Under normal operating conditions, all the
masonry surfaces should be cool enough to
touch. Only the metal will be too hot to touch
during the burn. After the burn, the doors as
well will cool down.
Avoid putting combustible materials or candles
on any shelves or mantels on the heater. The
heater cap and mantle can hold non-combustible
objects, vases, etc. Use your good judgment.
GLASS CARE:
Many customers wipe the ceramic glass before
each burn with a paper towel and a tiny bit of
fine ash from the ash box. If you choose to use a
liquid glass or oven cleaner on the ceramic glass,
only do this when the glass and doors are cool.
SMOKE REMOVAL:
If you get smoke on the brick or stone face from
an improperly closed damper, wait until the
heater is cool and clean the carbon stains off
with oven cleaner (or simpler means) following
instructions on the can or bottle.
OUTSIDE AIR:
It is customary in a new tight house to supply
outside air (a 4”-6” metal duct) to the vicinity
of the heater. A hole can be drilled through the
foundation wall, and a rust proof/fireproof duct
installed with a screen on the outside end and a
closeable register on the living room or kitchen
end. The duct can be on either face or side of
the heater. Do not place it away from the heater
where it might create a felt draft across the feet of
someone trying to enjoy the fire or heater.
DAMPER MAINTENANCE:
The sliding damper and frame is fabricated from
steel. If left in the closed position all summer, it
can accumulate moisture and rust, and stick a bit
when you start up your heater again in the fall.
Many people remove their damper at the end
of the heating season and clean it with fine steel
wool or a brass brush and spray it with WD-40
and also spray inside both left and right channels
of the frame with a red needle attachment on the
can. Lubricating and rust proofing the damper
for the summer is a good way to have it in good
shape and ready to go for the fall.
ANNUAL MAINTENANCE:
Most people check all their soot doors once or
twice during the heating season and clean out
any fly ash or fine soot with a shop vacuum. The
basement ash chamber can typically hold a full
season’s accumulation of ash and can be cleaned

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out with a hoe and dust mask in warm weather.
Questions- Call us 207-696-5442 or email us at
[e-mail]
FINE-TUNING:
Follow the general guidelines, but exercise
common sense. Watch, listen, and learn from
the fire and heater. Fine-tune and adjust your
techniques as necessary.
OVEN CARE:
The oven is “on” after every burn for several
hours. A clean burn in the main firebox will
create a clean burn in the oven. If the oven is
sooty and dark, then you are not getting a clean
burn. Call us for advice if dry wood, upside
down burns and close attention on your part
doesn’t clean up the burn and oven. During a
clean burn, flames will flow into the oven and
circle left and right like ram’s horns on either side
of the oven throat.
After a burn, test the oven temperature with a
metal oven thermometer. Fine untreated wood
fly ash is not unhealthy. You can bake bread,
if you wish, directly on the oven hearth bricks.
Casseroles or pan goods such as pies, cakes or
roasts can be placed anywhere on the oven floor
and over the throat. Rotate the pans if necessary.
Pizza is best prepared by placing a “pizza stone”
in the oven after the burn. Let the stone “soak”
for 20 -30 minutes then bake pizzas’ (up to 12”
-14” diameter) directly on the stone. Several
pizzas’ can be cooked in sequence, each taking
only a few minutes to bake.
DO NOT FORGET TO REMOVE THE PIZZA
STONE AFTER YOUR COOKING IS DONE. Left
in place the stone will block the oven throat and
cause the heater to smoke out around the doors
at the next burn.